There has been quite a lot of interesting news coming out recently regarding what seem to be success in efforts to demonstrate LENR effects from various parties who are sharing results more or less openly. I am hearing about other efforts to demonstrate other systems and replications, and all this has led me to feel quite optimistic about the prospects for LENR.
However, I feel that the bar is still set quite high when it comes to making a case to the wider public that a new and superior energy source is available to mankind. It’s one thing to convince someone who has been paying close attention to the topic in specialized forums and websites that people in the small LENR community frequent — but quite another when it comes to convincing the general public and those who shape the opinions of the public (leaders in media, scientific community, business, politics, education, etc.)
For the purpose of this post, let’s assume that someone has developed a LENR device that is measured to be putting out excess heat at a COP of 2 or higher reliably. And let’s say that ten other people, competent in putting together a such device, following the design of the first were able to get similar results.
Would we now have proof of LENR? I would say yes, but my guess would be in this case, even if a wide percentage of people following the topic were thoroughly convinced that LENR had been demonstrated, there would still be obstacles in getting those considered ‘authorities’ on things like this, to accept that as proof.
There would probably be the demand by the ‘authorities’ that a peer-reviewed journal with a sufficiently high impact factor publish an article validating the LENR effect, before it could be taken seriously.
But how do you get an academic team to take on the task of testing and publication in this top-flight journal when the ‘authorities’ they listen to say that LENR is a waste of time? Would ten apparently successful replication be enough to get academics to take the topic seriously?
If not, is there a way to do an end-run around the ‘authorities’ and take the case directly to the public, or media, via the many channels that are now available?
Or is it a losing battle at this point — and we need to wait for a commercial product to hit the market?
So I’d like to throw the question out to readers here. Assuming we have a working LENR device demonstrated, and ten replications of it — how would you go about the task of trying to demonstrate to the world that this phenomenon is real, and should be taken seriously?